Distractions
by Higuchimon
Summary: [one-shot, Shizuka & Otogi friendship] Shizuka wants to think about something other than her father being in the hospital. Otogi can help with that.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit.  
**Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters  
**Title:** Distractions  
**Friends:** Otogi & Shizuka  
**Word Count:** 5,317||**Status:** One-shot  
**Genre:** Friendship, Family||**Rated:** PG-13  
**Timeline:** About ten or so years after the Ceremonial Duel (roughly 2005)  
**Feedback:** All forms eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
**Summary:** Shizuka wants to think about something other than her father being in the hospital. Otogi can help with that.

* * *

Otogi didn't normally find himself wandering around town without some kind of a purpose, and today wasn't an exception. That purpose today was just to get some fresh air and let anyone who might appreciate a nice view get one of him. From some of the looks he'd seen, several people definitely liked what they saw.

They could look all they pleased, however. Otogi hadn't yet met a person he wanted to have anything more than a few pleasant evenings with. Granted, those evenings were _very_ pleasant, and he thoroughly enjoyed them.

He strolled along, contemplating what new products he could sell. He'd spent most of his free time lately working out the rules for a new game, and he thought he almost had it ready for product testing. Deep in thoughts of business, he almost didn't catch the flash of brilliant red hair a short distance away.

Red hair didn't turn up often in Domino City, and he thought there was something familiar about that shade and style in particular. He glanced over with more interest, a thoughtful crease between his eyebrows. _Is that…_ He hadn't seen her in years, but he thought it was.

It only took a few steps for him to get over there. "Excuse me. Are you Kawai Shizuka?"

She looked up at the sound of his voice, an automatic polite smile on her lips. "Yes?"

Otogi couldn't help a warm grin, the one he saved for most pretty girls he met. "Otogi Ryuuji. Remember, we met back during Kaiba's tournament a few years ago?"

Shizuka's eyes widened and her smile turned much warmer and genuine. "Oh, hello! It's been a long time."

"I know." He hadn't seen her since she'd returned to her mother's apartment after Battle City. He'd heard a few things from Jounouchi about her, mostly involving how her eyesight had improved and that she'd graduated high school, but that was it. "I didn't know you lived around here."

She shook her head, biting her lip. "I don't." She turned, gesturing quickly to a tall building that rose beyond the trees in the nearby park. "I'm only here for a while."

He glanced that way and recognized Domino General Hospital. He hadn't really thought he was that close to it, at least not consciously. "Visiting someone?" He hoped her eyes weren't giving her problems again.

"Yes." He'd heard pain like that in people's voices before and never liked it. "My father's in the hospital. Something with his…liver, I think they said."

Otogi decided not to use the standard replies of hoping he would be better soon. He'd heard rumors about Jounouchi Hiroshi and how much he drank. If his liver had turned bad, then there wasn't much hope.

"I hadn't heard that." Which in truth didn't surprise him, since he doubted Jounouchi would want to tell him anything of the sort.

She glanced up toward him, large eyes shining. "They're only letting a couple of people in there at a time. Katsuya and Mom are in there right now. They're going to text me when it's my turn. I wanted to get some fresh air."

"I know how you feel." Otogi gestured her to an ornate bench and sprawled there himself. "That's why I'm out here now. I spent most of the morning at the store. Needed to breathe a little."

She settled down next to him, her purse on her lap, hands clenched on top of it. "I hate how hospitals smell. All that bleach."

Memories he'd tried hard to push aside ghosted through the back of his mind. "It gets on your tongue and stays there. You can't brush it off, either. I've tried."

At once she nodded, eyes lighting up. "And everything is so quiet." She glanced down toward the grass, shoulders tense. "It almost feels like everyone is already gone there."

Oh, he knew what she meant. More than he wanted to. "It's worse at night. There aren't as many people there." Hospitals were full of long white corridors the designers had tried to make more pleasant with pretty paintings and comfortable chairs in the waiting areas, mostly empty the later in the day that one went. At least visitors during the day brought some life to it. But the later it grew and the less people moved through the corridors, the worse it was.

Shizuka shivered at his words, a hint of paleness to her cheeks now. "You sound like you've been there before."

"I have." He stared up at the blue skies overhead, tracking a cloud. "A couple of years ago." He breathed deeply for a moment, trying not to dwell on it. He'd done all he could not to dwell on it for years, so he was good at it by now.

She said nothing at all, but he could almost feel the curiosity leaking off of her. He didn't answer her unspoken question right away, forming what he wanted to say in his head first.

"My father." He kept his attention on the cloud. It drifted, tugged by the far distant winds, and if he focused on it, he felt he could say it without hurting as much. "He died there."

Her breath caught in her throat. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Why should you?" Otogi tilted his head toward her, finding an odd smile on his lips. "Don't worry about it." He'd hardly taken out an ad in the newspapers about it, after all. He'd told the Mutous, of course, and everyone turned up at the funeral who'd met him, but other than that, he'd kept matters quiet.

"Do you miss him?" Her voice was low and thoughtful, husky with concern that he didn't quite understand.

He thought about the question before answering. "I don't know." He didn't lie. That was something he'd wondered about since before his father's final, fatal illness. "We had issues." He thought that would likely be one of the more impressive understatements he'd ever made in his life.

"Issues?"

If it were anyone else, he likely enough wouldn't have answered, or not that fully. But this was a friend, more or less, or at least the sister of a friend. He still wasn't sure how to describe his own past. "Do you know how I met Jounouchi and the others?" He saw her shake her head out of the corner of his eye. "It was because of my father." The whole details were a little too sordid, he decided. "He wanted revenge on Yuugi's grandfather for something that happened when he was younger. That revenge was me."

Shizuka shook her head in disbelief as he sat up, wanting to look at her more fully for this. The cloud wasn't as much of a distraction as he would've wanted. "How?"

"It involved games, of course." His lips twitched at that. Games were more powerful than most people consciously realized. That was one of the reasons his store made the kind of profit that it did. "Dad wanted me to defeat Yuugi and claim the Millennium Puzzle. It didn't work out like that, and we became friends instead."

Maybe someday he'd tell her in all the gory details, but today, he didn't feel like going over it.

"Yuugi's like that." Shizuka smiled at the thought of Yuugi and his love of friends. Otogi didn't even consider disagreeing; he knew first-hand how true it was. People who fought Yuugi tended to become his friends, if they didn't die or go insane.

"At any rate, Dad's health was never the best after that. I think wanting his revenge was what kept him going all that time, and after that, he didn't have as much to live for. He and Mr. Mutou sort of made up, but still…dad just lost something inside of himself."

He'd seen his father collapse from the inside day by day for years. He'd worked to help rebuild the Black Crown, and worked inside of it as well, keeping the books and helping his son with ideas. And yet that fire that kept him going wasn't there anymore.

To Shizuka's credit, she didn't offer any more of the usual platitudes than he had. "You must've loved him very much."

"I'm still not sure about that. I think I did." Otogi tried not to think about it all that often. It hurt more than he liked to do so. "I grew up wanting to please him, you know. I hated the Mutous and everything they stood for. I told myself for _years_ that when I met Yuugi, I was going to defeat him and take the Puzzle."

"But you didn't."

"I didn't." Otogi chuckled, though it felt a little weak. "Dad didn't care about dying. He never said it like that, but he stopped going to the doctor a couple of years after that. He just wanted everything to end."

Shizuka tensed, looking toward him again. "He didn't…"

He shook his head. "No." In all honesty, looking back made Otogi a little surprised his father hadn't taken it on himself to end it personally.

He steered the conversation away from that, at least as much as he could. "He only ended up in the hospital because he couldn't hide how sick he was anymore. By then, there wasn't anything they could do about it."

He really didn't want to think about it. Shizuka picked up on that, or so he guessed, since she fell silent as well.

Unfortunately that left a huge silence between them, and Otogi had never liked the quiet like that. "So how have you been doing since Battle City?"

"All right." From the flash of a smile on her lips, she appreciated the question as much as he did. "I'm an artist now. I work for Industrial Illusions, making cards."

He arched an eyebrow up. "Oh?"

"That's right." She nodded cheerfully. "I love working with colors and images. It's just…" One hand wove in the air for a few moments as she tried to find the words and failed. He shook his head in amusement.

"I know." There were no words for finding one's true calling in life. Despite everything his father wanted him to do with Dungeon Dice Monsters, Otogi knew gaming and game making were in his blood. He wouldn't have been happy or satisfied with anything else.

She fished into her purse and pulled out a small tablet. "I've been trying to work out something, but it's not really coming together the way that I want it to. Could you take a look? You know games, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" Otogi sniffed; asking that was asking if he knew how to breathe! He leaned over to get a better look as she got her design up on the screen. "What is it you're trying to do?"

"It's for a Plant-Type monster. It's just a Normal Monster, but I want to make it …right." She shrugged, gesturing down to the half-finished design. It resembled a cross between a woman and a rose more than anything else. Otogi took a careful look at it.

"Does it have a name yet?" Sometimes he'd found a name for something before he even knew what the something was, and created it just to fit the name itself.

"Alraune." She touched the rose, a deep blood-red. "This doesn't feel right. I've thought about other colors, but nothing's felt right yet."

He drummed his fingers on his leg, staring at the picture, trying to think of what could improve it. "What else have you tried?" He thought the general outline looked good, but she was right; the colors weren't the _right_ ones just yet.

Other than that, though, he definitely approved of her art style. He wasn't sure if he knew many artists who could've created the monster and had it look this beautiful.

"All the rose colors. Red, yellow, white." She frowned down at her work, a furrow between her eyes. "I wonder if black would work." She touched the tablet, watching as the necessary parts filled in.

"That's good." Otogi nodded, but it still wasn't right. Something about it just didn't click right when he looked.

"Not good enough." Shizuka murmured, still staring down at it. She moved her fingers again, changing it to a few other shades, none of which quite hit the right tone.

She glanced up at him for a moment, then back down to the design, a faint smile flickering across her lips before she started to draw something else in. He started to ask what she was doing, when she quieted him with a shake of her head. He smothered a smile of his own and watched as she drew in a long, thick set of thorns behind the woman in the background of the image. The shading wasn't quite the same as his own green eyes, but he liked it anyway.

"Do I want to know what made you think of that?"

"I don't know myself." Shizuka shrugged as she turned her attention back to the coloring issue. "What do you think of purple? Do you think that would work?"

"Try it." Otogi thought it might and watched her fill in the colors properly. "Maybe a shade darker?"

Both of them looked at once she finished, and Shizuka nodded, eyes brilliant with delight. "That's perfect!"

"Congratulations." He liked being there to see a new work of art being born. It was almost as much fun as seeing a new game selling off the shelves.

She slipped the tablet back into her purse and nodded. "I'll send it in later." She started to say something else, only to have her own stomach interrupt her with a sharp growl.

"Hungry?" Otogi teased, liking how her cheeks flamed red at that. She nodded.

"I should probably head over to the hospital and get something there." He didn't think she sounded all that enticed by the idea of the food there, and he didn't blame her. Not only was it too expensive, but there wasn't enough variety and not nearly the right taste.

"I think we can do better than that. There are a couple of restaurants a street or two over. My treat."

Her blush deepened and she shook he head. "I'll pay for myself, if you don't mind. But I do want something to eat."

"If that's how you want it." He didn't really care to argue about it. "I'm getting pretty hungry myself." He unrolled himself from the bench and brushed dust off his pants. "Come on, I know just the one. They know me there."

She hesitated only a few moments before she stood up and slung her purse over her shoulder. "All right. Thank you very much."

"My pleasure." He liked talking about her work, his work, and food much better than he did talking about parents and death and dying. Otogi preferred life. It was much more interesting.

He knew all the best shortcuts to get to the restaurant in a very few minutes. He knew that she could get called to see her father at any point, and he wanted to make certain she had something to eat before then. Having someone you cared about in the hospital was bad enough; being hungry only made it worse.

Where he took her was a small little place tucked away into a corner. He waved at the waitress as he entered and she came over with two menus, a quick smile on her lips.

"Good to see you, Otogi-san, and your friend." She guided them over to an empty table. Chinese food was fairly popular in Domino, and he was kind of surprised to even find an empty table here. He'd come here before and hadn't been able to get a table. At least today was an exception. He didn't think Shizuka would've appreciated being dragged all over town in the search for food.

"Likewise." Otogi slipped down into his seat. "I think I'll have champon today." He genuinely loved the combination of pork, seafood, and vegetables and ate it whenever he had a chance.

Shizuka glanced over the offerings and made up her mind. "I'll have some octopus karaage, please."

The waitress nodded, vanishing to the back in moments. Otogi relaxed, enjoying his afternoon more than he thought he would. He liked walks by himself, but encountering Shizuka ended up adding a sort of frisson he hadn't expected at all.

"How long do you think you'll be in town?" The question was neutral enough, he decided, since neither of them wanted to bring up the rough topics of fathers once again. At least not here, while they waited for their meals.

Shizuka shrugged. "I don't know. It could be a few days or longer. Mom couldn't tell me much. They just aren't sure."

"Well, if you want lunch while you're here, let me know." He started to pull one of his business cards out, then changed his mind and took out a pen. "Here, let me give you my number."

He scribbled his number down on the napkin and slid it across toward her. Shizuka hesitated for a few moments, then picked it up and put it into her purse. "Thank you."

They didn't have to wait much longer for their food, and both of them paid strict attention to the meal once it arrived. Otogi enjoyed good food, especially here, and good company, and Shizuka certainly qualified as that. He liked getting to know her as herself and not just 'Jounouchi's little sister'.

Only moments after they finished, a soft chiming noise came from Shizuka's purse and she dived for it, hope and fear shimmering in her eyes. Otogi tensed, not at all certain of what to hope for.

Her shoulders slumped as she read the text message and she shook her head, a weak smile touching her lips. "False alarm. Just my roommate."

Otogi nodded, relieved. He didn't yet feel ready to give up talking to Shizuka.

"Do you plan to go back there before they call you?" He knew it wouldn't be much longer; visiting hours would see to that. Jounouchi and his mother would want Shizuka to have a chance to see her father, after all.

She slowly shook her head. "I'd rather not."

He wasn't surprised, and his grin warmed toward her. "I can keep you company until then if you like." If he ended up being needed at the store, his clerk could text him, and other than that, there wasn't much else he needed to do that day that he couldn't do outside like this.

Her cheeks tinged that red again and she smiled. "I'd like that."

"Good. I'd hate to have to try and convince you." Otogi sipped his drink, wondering what else they could do. He didn't think she'd want to go too far from the hospital, and there weren't too many other things they could do besides sit and talk, or walk and talk. His store wasn't too far by his standards, but when it came to a hospital visit, it would likely be just a little out of reach.

"So, what would you like to do?" He decided to leave it up to her. She was the more important person at the moment.

She fiddled a little with the remains of her dinner. "I don't know. I think I've done almost everything I can for now."

"Might as well take a walk? It could help settle our stomachs, at least?" Otogi suggested.

"All right." She ducked her head for a moment. "I'm sorry if I'm not good company right now. I'm just…"

He shook his head without hesitation. "You are. I understand." He'd never known what to do in the last few days of his father's life, either. He'd spent as much time as he could with him, even when the old man stared at the ceiling and said nothing at all for hours on end. And there'd still been times he wanted to get out and breathe something that wasn't hospital air.

Both of them paid for their food, then headed back outside, Shizuka with a little more briskness to her walk now that she wasn't so hungry. Otogi strolled along as he usually did, thinking of what he knew of the area. He'd spent more than enough time walking around Domino whenever he had something on his mind.

"There's a lake over that way. Want to head there?" He'd always had a fondness for water. Granted, this one was man-made, but it still glittered quite prettily in the sun.

"Sure." Shizuka fell into step beside him and he led the way.

Many questions swirled around in his mind, but he just couldn't decide which of them he wanted to ask first. The specter of her father's hospitalization hovered over both of them. It hadn't truly faded, not from the first moment she'd spoken of it.

He thought she was doing what she could to avoid speaking of it, though from the way her lips pressed together, he did wonder what she thought about it. She cast occasionally glances down to her hand, where she carried her phone, expecting the text at any moment.

"I haven't seen him since I was little," she said suddenly, tension written all over her shoulders and face. "Not since Mom and I moved away." Since the divorce, she didn't say, but he knew anyway. "I hoped he'd come when I was in the hospital the last time, but he didn't."

He'd heard anger and bitterness before, in his own voice and others, but none quite like hers. He pressed one hand on her shoulder for a moment and she passed him a quick glance and a smile.

"You can be angry. It's not that bad." He knew that most people would've said otherwise, but Otogi wasn't most people. He'd spent too many years angry at his father not to understand how it felt.

She bit her lip, still uncertain, and he didn't press her. Being angry wasn't something that came naturally to her.

"He didn't even send a note when I graduated high school. Or college." She hesitated before she kept on. "Sometimes I wonder if he even remembers I'm his daughter."

He heard the catch in her voice as clearly as he'd heard everything else, and his hands tightened, an old voice echoing in the back of his memory. "If he doesn't, that's his loss."

Shizuka swallowed once or twice, then headed over to a vending machine a few feet away, getting herself a bottle of soda. "Did you want anything?"

"Sure." He recognized it for what it was; another attempt to do something so she wouldn't have to focus on the dark thoughts looming. "I can get it, though."

"No, let me. You've been more than kind enough to me today." Coins rattled and she held the drink out to him a moment later. He didn't protest; if it helped her manage, it was small enough.

Silence reigned between them for a little longer as they walked on toward the lake. It wasn't the same kind of silence as before, so Otogi didn't feel the need to break it just yet. Instead, he admired the view; the city put a lot of effort into keeping the area clean and beautiful and it showed. Dozens of types of flowers bloomed all around, filling the air with a multitude of enticing fragrances. Long stretches of brilliant green grass, kept that way with the most advanced fertilizers and judicious watering, glimmered in between the bushes and flowers.

"This is so beautiful." Shizuka whispered, staring out at it all. "I didn't even look at it before."

"Was there a reason you should have?" Otogi asked, tilting his head. "I think you've had enough on your mind."

"It's easier, being with you, though." Shizuka didn't look at him when she spoke, only stared out toward the lake as they moved closer to it. Several decorative benches, some iron, others stone, stood in not so random places that gave the best views of the area, and she sat down on one of the stone ones. He sat beside her, automatically lounging backwards as he did.

"Glad I could help."

Again she was quiet, and he could almost hear the workings of her mind as she stared outward.

"I know he drinks too much. He always did. I never told Mom I remembered it from before we left. I like to let her think I only remember Katsuya." She glanced toward him briefly, then away again. "Sometimes I wish that I could. Only remember him from then, I mean."

Otogi wasn't at all certain of what to say, so he did what he felt was wisest at the moment: he stayed quiet and listened to her.

"It wasn't as bad as you might think. Mostly he yelled a lot, and it wasn't like he was yelling _at_ anyone. He just yelled. He'd come in late and be angry about something." Her fingers tightened on her purse. "About a month before we left, he and Mom had a fight about something. I can't remember what it was about. I shouldn't have been awake. It was really late. But I think that's what made us leave."

He could think of a dozen things it might have been, but without knowing, Otogi could only shake his head.

Before he could say anything, though he wasn't certain what he might've said, Shizuka turned toward him, a smile he thought he recognized as being only partially real on her lips. "What about your mother? I don't think you've mentioned her at all."

"Because I don't remember her." Otogi shrugged. "I was only one or two when she passed on." He barely thought of her at all, truth to tell. She wasn't as much a part of his life or his past as his father had been.

Another silence rose up, a companionable sort of not talking that came from not needing to. Otogi breathed in the fresh air and scent of flowers and wondered if she'd actually call him. Time alone would tell, he guessed.

That same chime came from her phone and she checked it quickly. The way she tensed warned Otogi: this wasn't a false alarm. Moments later, she stood on her feet. "It's my turn in there."

He stood up a heartbeat later. "I'll walk you there, if you don't mind."

Her smile was warmer, more real this time. "Thank you. I'm not sure if I know my way back there from here anyway." Though the hospital rose up in plain view no matter where in the park one was, there were ways that were faster and ways that weren't. Otogi had a pretty good idea of which way would get them there soon enough.

"This way, then." It probably wasn't one of the fastest, but it would do, at least.

She didn't say anything as they hurried along the tree-shrouded path he chose, but he didn't expect her too. There was too much worry in her expression for her to have the time for casual conversation. Seeing her like that brought back enough memories that he'd never wanted to deal with again, but he didn't blame her. It wasn't any of her doing.

It was just as they came out in sight of the hospital itself that she spoke. "I really can't thank you enough for all of this. I thought I'd just sit out here and stare at the grass until they called me."

"It was my pleasure. Really, if you need someone to hang out with while you're here, then you can call me. Don't lose that number." He waggled a finger at her, a grin creasing his lips, and she laughed, a much more genuine sound than at any time before.

"I won't." She touched the side of her purse where she'd put the folded napkin. "I'll call you tonight, actually. Then you'll have my number too."

"Looking forward to it." Otogi told her, and he did. He didn't have as many contacts as one might've thought, much less as many friends. He preferred quality to quantity. The friends he'd made in high school were still the ones he cared about the most, since they understood him better than most people did.

He walked with her all the way up to the door and they both stopped outside of it. She still held her drink, only half-finished, in one hand, her grip tightening just a little as she looked toward the building.

"Good luck." He didn't know what 'good luck' would mean for her, but she could take whatever she liked from the words.

"What if he really doesn't remember that I'm his daughter?" She almost whispered them too low for him to catch, if he hadn't listened for anything she might've said.

This, however, sent a small, sad smile to his lips. "Just like I said before, that's his loss. He's the one missing out on a great person."

Her smile matched his, if only for the briefest of moments. "Thank you. For everything. Again. I don't know what else to tell you."

"You don't have to tell me anything. Go on, your family's waiting for you." He waved a quick hand toward the door, then paused as it opened for someone else, a whiff of the all too familiar scent of bleach wafting outward. "Shizuka, wait a second."

She'd only begun to shift her weight on her feet when he spoke, and now she stopped to look at him in confusion. He didn't give her time to think about it, but darted for the nearest flower bush, one covered in clusters of white blossoms. He broke off one of them, recognizing it only as he did as lily of the valley, and hurried back over to offer it to her.

"Here. This should help you with that smell, at least for a little while." Anything that could improve the aroma of a hospital was a good idea in his opinion.

"Thank you." She looked down at it and then reached up to wind it into her hair over one ear.

"It suits you." He hadn't studied the language of flowers very much, but a few moments of thought brought to mind that lily of the valley meant 'sweetness'. It certainly fit, both her and what he'd given it to her for.

She nodded a little in acknowledgment, then once more faced the door, determination written strong in every part of her. "I'll talk to you soon."

He nodded as well and watched as she entered. She didn't linger, the door closing behind her quickly. He didn't stay more than a few more seconds; he knew she wouldn't be out until later, anyway, and while he wasn't desperately needed back at the store, he wanted to go back anyway.

He cast a look over his shoulder as he walked away, though he didn't know what he thought he'd see. All that was there were people going in and out, some with worried looks and some not. He'd seen it all before and wasn't in a huge rush to see it again.

Otogi turned back around and headed to his store. Perhaps he'd bring something with him when Shizuka called him the next day and they could have a little picnic in the park. Or he could bring some of his own work and they could go over it together. Anything to keep her mind off her troubles.

_Perfume. That's it._ Flowers held a lovely scent, but they died far too soon. Perhaps he could find something in that sweet lily of the valley fragrance.

And with those plans in mind, Otogi strolled along back to his store, looking forward to another pleasant afternoon spent with a lovely young woman.

**The End**

**Note:** Kaarage is a Japanese cooking technique where things like fish and meat are deep fried in oil. Small pieces of the food are marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, and/or ginger, then coated with wheat flour or potato starch and fried in oil.


End file.
